| Bin to see tuneage avec le Skinque. Went to the NME rock and riot tour at Oxford Brookes Union - good venue, got the thumbs up. After navigating a bog and a busy road (ma dropped us off where the Oxford Poly union was 30 years ago. Its moved.) and a long queue, we caught the last 5 minutes of The Horrors set - damn good discordance and feedback with strobe lighting. Was a shame cos they're sposed to be good. They were followed by The Dykeenies. As the name suggests they were only good for comedy factor. The Dykeenies appeared to be 4 pretty girly in a straight way 17 year olds boys. They played pretty mundane pop indie somewhere between Macfly and Feeder but several of their songs for some reason had full on Ibiza 90's rave anthem intros! We thought we were getting a Born Slippy cover at one point. He hadn't mastered the art of singing into a microphone either, which was quite annoying. Don't think they are one of NME's greatest finds! (Watch me cringe as The Dykeenies release the tune of 2007). Apres was The Macabees who were rather good - had me gripped - damn good guitarry indie rock stuff. The lead singer had watched 24 Hour Party People one too many times tho - he had a Joy Division lurch going on! I could see them rising out of the mists this year, tho it was a bit alternative - reminded me a little of British Sea Power in places without the trees and herons and bears and moose. The Fratellis closed the eve. They're very good - a little one-hit wondery at the mo - and the bloke is too scottish to make coherent chat with the audience! Couldn't tell what he was saying when he was bantering with the crowd, could only pick out the odd expletive. Unfortunately if your first release goes dododododododododododododododododododododoododododo then you are doomed to having that chanted at you for the rest of your working life. Some of their tunes had a good not-quite-as-country-as the kings of leon thang going which was cool too -other bits were a little samey however.
Sposed to be going to see The Automatic on my own on Thursday (new place, no friends and Le Skinque didn't wanna come). Not seen tuneage for a good long while. Bed now. | comments: Leave a comment   |
|  ghost zoo nicked from [Bad username: ephignia Go vote for your new 7 wonders of the world here. Voted for mine. Apparently the bloody boring heap of iron that is the eiffel tower is currently in the top 7 which is not amusing. Think I voted for Easter Island (cos of the cannibal geese fantatics), stonehenge (its damn old), Ankgor Wat (nearly went there), the pyramids (have bin there - would vote for the solar boat next to em if given the chance cos that was best), macchu piccu great wall of china and the taj mahal tho I don't wanna influence your voting at all! Bloody eiffel tower. Am a bit shocked by the top 21 actually - I mean the statue of liberty? The pathetic lion thing in singapore is almost as impressive. That opera house beyond being iconic isn't up to 'wonder' status either. I prefer the Clifton suspension bridge over both of em! Life okay - more teaching this week. Lost 3 kiddies on route to the 'states of matter' show that I was sposed to escort half a class to. They got there safe so its okay! I was distracted trying to do the whole eyes in the back of my head thing with little Jordan. Its half term this week (still gotta go to uni tho). I'm doing 3 bits of teaching the next week, including facing this barbaric group of Year 9 baboons. Am going to go armed with guns and baboon food I think. Have also started organising the PGCE xmas partay - we're going to have a hog roast and barn dance - how cool is that?! Hope life is good in your realm. Casualty time now. ] | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Stuff | | Time: | 04:00 pm |
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| Still busy.
Bin planning my first bit of lesson - gotta do a plenary (end bit of lesson) on internal and external fertilisation to year 7's this week. Joys. Also gotta interview some for a piece of coursework. Bet I get child germs this week - too much close contact with em is a bad thing! Made some pretty cards with things one em for my interviews tho!
Was also forced out of my roost and made to go out both friday and saturday night. Meant I got to experience more Oxford pubs tho - Oxford pubs rock! Also got to bait an American which is always fun! He is a PGCE friend's housemate and has managed to annoy me in every possible way! I think he might be the 2nd most dislikeable person I've ever met! Hoping he comes out again for more baiting! Got dragged to the purple turtle again - that is 3 Friday's running now which is shameful. I hate this bonding business - would much rather just be lurking in my roost. Have to go for the Science PGCE curry on wednesday cos I organised it. Oh the stress.
Tis my Matriculation next weekend - involves wearing cloak and being battered with paddles I think. Got to parade through Oxford in cloak with other matriculands and no doubt become the feature of many a Japanese and American tourist's photo album. Oh joy. We get free fud at the expense of the college afterwards tho! Its also the Oxford Biere Festival featuring 160 bieres, 20 cidres, continental bottled bieres, english fruit wines and a bit of mead!
Right - gonna chill. Done all my reading for the week. Just need to write my lesson plan and make a nice fat thai curry I think. Tarah! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| As ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) strangesam has written an entry of novel proportions I thought I had better give you a little update.
The world of icecream was going okay - my major roles were either turning tubs of ice cream upside down or making sure they were the right way before going into the -40 deg freezer or if I was very lucky building cardboard boxes. I had a go at packing too but wasn't quick enough! However it took a bit of a turn for the worst on Friday when someone cut his finger off :-/. Not good. To make it worse, he was cleaning out the strawberry sauce holder at the time. Eeeeeew. And they had to take the equipment apart to look for the finger. Not good. The poor guy was meant to have his annual holiday this week too. The finger followed him to hospital and the last I heard they were trying to sew it back on. We didn't make the honey and ginger flavour that day incase the machinery was still contaminated with body parts. I've had a couple of days off to do pre-uni stuff but I'm back to work tomorrow. Eeeeep.
Bristol was cool! Was loverly to see all the folk again! Its kind of like time stands still. I had to make a rapid departure on Saturday so couldn't make it to pub lunchage. Was feeling a bit worse for wear!!! That darn poisoned Hatchet beer.
Reading was cool too - very sober cos I took the carmobile with me....I could've killed for a beer at about 8pm! The music wasn't that notable. Dresden dolls were good mid afternoon. Saw a couple of awful loud bands, a bit of generic indie (boykillboy and a packed out set by the kooks who are rather dull), a bit of slayer and saw a little of chemical romance being bottled but nothing outstanding until Pearl Jam who blew the stage away! they were stunning! The guitarring was fantastic. And I think I'm gonna marry Eddie. Think he ranks higher than Dave Grohl even. He was very sweet - was nearly in tears at one point apologising for not coing to the UK enough. *Sigh*! Unfortunately the rather inebriated strangesam had to go catch his ferry half way through the set back to the quiet campsite! Note to self - don't camp in the quiet campsite. Also saw the Iain who was looking a bit bedraggle. All in a ll a good day.
Now have a houselet again! Made sure I was the first over so that I could chose the biggest food cupboard! Took a couple of boxes of stuff over at the weekend and am going over again today wth the new bookshelf and room decorations. Not seen any of the others over there yet. Lots of silly emails being exchanged about broadband providers and how many sauepans we have. Joys.
Things to do. Hope everyone is honky and that the ghost of steve irwin isn't haunting you.
| | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | meme. Enjoy. | | Time: | 07:52 pm |
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| 1. Do we know each other outside of LJ?
2. Whats your philosophy on life?
3. Would you have my back in a fight?
4. Would you keep a secret from me if you thought it was in my best interest?
5. What is your favorite memory of us?
6. Would you give me a kidney?
7. Tell me one odd/interesting fact about you:
8. Would you take care of me when I'm sick?
9. Can we get together and make a cake?
10. Have you heard any rumors of me lately?
11. Do you/have you talk(ed) crap about me?
12. Do you think I'm a good person?
13. Would you drive across country with me?
14. Do you think I'm attractive?
15. If you could change anything about me, would you?
16. What do you wear to sleep?
17. Would you come over for no reason just to hang out?
18. Would you go on a date with me if i asked you?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you? | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | simpsons | | Current Location: | room | | Time: | 06:15 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/working.gif) accomplished |
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| Last day of work today. Apart from next thursday I am now officially no longer the Beechdean Temporary Receptionist. Instead.........
I'm a Beechdean factory girl! Yay!
Having taken rather a large pay cut (well, £1 an hour drop) I start my new job tomorrow! Yipee! I went on a tour of the factory today. You get to wear wellies. One girl had the role of turning pots the right way up so I'm hoping I'll be given her job. Its going to be mindnumbing. But probably not quite as mindnumbing as the receptionists job. I will get to wear a lab coat (cunningly renamed factory overall) too. And it is my personal responsibility to ensure that batches go wrong and end up in the reject freezer! Oh the excitement.
Not much other news....written a large cheque for my new house but seem to be unable to send it! Gearing up to spend 90 emus worth of money this weekend too. Mr N.A.T. West will not be happy with me. Been declared free from criminal activity too.....I had to be checked out for paedo credentials prior to starting my PGCE. Cats are chipper (one of em bought me a dead shrew a couple of days ago), the Skink is doing okay, the 66sect goose is flying down tomorrow ready to voyage to Bristol, yahdeyahdeyah.
Will update about the world of ice cream soon.... | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | cows | | Current Location: | Bedroom | | Time: | 11:46 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/thoughtful.gif) contemplative |
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| Yay for the lemurgirl being back on home soil! Looking forward to friday.
Am off to Oxford in the morn to look at my new house-to-be again. Given the fact that its gonna cost me £325 a month it is rather nice......got 5 large bedrooms and an okay kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Bit daunted bout the flatmates I've aquired. They are all little girlies. I fear silly bitchy girl stuff particularly at times of high stress and deadlines given that we are all doing the same, highly intensive, highly stressful PGCE course. Will have to take on the mother role too as I'm about 99 years older than the rest of em. Its in a good location tho......bout 5 mins from the Cowley Road which is packed out with intersting pubs and restaurants etc..
Got my college welcome pack too. I'll be a member of Kellogg College. Founded in 1990. Its the reject college for part time and mature students, partcularly those that applied so late that all the other colleges were full. I am excited about the college punt tho. I can borrow it free of charge whenever I like! My punt. Can go goose collecting every weekend. I'm rather scared about Oxford formalities mind you. I didn't consider those when I applied to Oxford (well, actually I applied to Bristol and just put Oxford down on my form for amusement). I have to attend a Matriculation Ceremony. I'm not allowed to take guests which is scary in itself.....some fuck-weird Oxford masonic secret ceremony.....yeeeep. I don't really understand what it is all about, but think it is their way of telling me that my Bristol degree and PhD are inferior. I dispute this! I'm very proud of my education so I will protest I think. I might turn up wearing my splendid technicolour gown of magenta and cerise instead of the standard sub-fusc clothing.....I think that would get my message across! They give me lunch afterwards so won't be too traumatic. 3 weeks till my course starts.
3 more days of ice cream receptioning to go (plus one day the week after). The new receptionist starts on monday. I'll have to babysit her most of those 3 days. It will be painful I think cos there is not enough work for 1 person to do, let alone 2. And I won't be able to play solitaire obsessively. Get paid on friday tho.....hurrah! I forgot to mention one of the most pointless things that my job title incorporates. I have to buy the milk. I have to buy the milk for the country's 10thish largest icecream manufacturers who truck ice cream nationally supplying via several major logistics companies. An icecream company that has a whole fleet of several hundred Jersey cows with udders that nearly reach the ground with full milky goodnesses. Surely you would have thought they could spair a few pints of milk a week for the staff? Instead I have to buy the milk from co-op on my way to work. Hmmmm. Something a little fishy going on there. I have blagged my way onto a tour of the factory which I'm rather excited about.
Beauty sleep time for me. So glad that Big Brother has finally finished as I get my evenings back. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Big bro | | Current Location: | the warthogs lair | | Subject: | Tings | | Time: | 10:08 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/happy.gif) chipper |
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| G'day.
Mourning the end of Gordon Ransey's F Word. He is currently my favourite chef, although if I had raised 2 fine piggies then I would have turned em into the finest of salamis. Mmmmmmn. The series was fantastic. Since last weeks episode I have been very tempted to do my own snails. he got a bunch from the garden, starved em for a day, fed em a carrot till they pooed orange then put em in a freezer. When well and truly in a state of suspended animation he made a wonderful salad with some smokey pancetta, the snails, a bit of lemon juice and olive oil and lots of nice leaves. It looked georgeous. Ma has a large snail living near her tomatoes (she also has a frog in her compost bag) so might steal him.
Well life in the world of icecream is somewhat tedious. I am glad that I have no intention of being an ice cream factory receptionist for more than another week. I have to ring a lot of people and enquire if they want ice cream (which usually results in abuse), take phone messages for people who are invariable not at their desks (twofold abuse from both the person phoning and the person not at their desk who has missed an important call) and remove spiders from the bathroom (which admittedly I do voluntarily). I play about 5 hours of solitaire and illicitly check my gmail at regular intervals. Oh the joys. The pay is atleast 4 times better than jobseekers tho so ho hum. And I have had 2 free tubs of reject icecream so far.
Have been in drastic househunt mode too. Bin to Oxford the last 5 nights running. Gone on strike tonight as I'm knackered. Started off looking with 3 girls who are going to be on my course. Swiftly got annoyed with them when they wanted to drag me to see a house that costs £400 excl a month so tried to dump em. Looked at a few much more reasonable priced rooms on my own. Got re-recruited by the girls to see a house last night which is a much more reasonable (but still a little dear) £325 pcm excl and reckon that is the way forward. Awaiting my next command which is likely to ask me to shell out every penny I own plus the blood of my cats and 5 honking geese for the first months rent and deposit. I don't get my first installment of bursary and grant till the end of September so will probably have to go and speak to Mr N.A.T. West soon!
Meanwhile I miss my cheese vending. Cooking up a plan to cheese vend in Oxford next summer before I start my NQT year! Oxford has at least 3 cheeseshops and a Carluccio's restaurant cum cafe cum deli which has a meat and cheese counter crying out for my services. Carluccio is my vegetable god. I own his fantastic veg book which has everything in the world from black worty veg things thru kohl rabi to carrots all done in lovely peasanty italiano stylee. Mmmmmn. I'm gonna have to start up a lunch time cheese shop in whatever school I end up in I think to get my cheese kicks.
Otherwise done nought. Reading ticket came today.....yay! Hotel is booked for night in Bristol......yay! All excited bout coming to Bristol!!! Get to have friends again! Not had friends for nearly a year now (bar sporadic visits to Lorraine's Oz pad). Miss Bristol heaps. Unfortunately I want to rehaunt all my favourite places, which is high demands for 2 days. Hmmmmn.
Bed awaits me ready for tommorrows day of excitement. Honk honk. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| Tis warm.
In fact its about as warm as it was most of the summer in Oz. Still a good 10 degrees colder than the weather I was picking oranges in. And a damn sight less humid than it was in Darwin and Asia (tho about the same temp). And a lot colder than Xmas and New Years Day were. No tumble dryer -esque wind like they have on warm days in Sydney and Melbourne. Means I'm not cold at the mo tho which is a good thing.
Gonna head north to seek out slightly fresher weather tommorrow. If I survive London at rushhour on the way to get my megabus.
The UK needs more air con and open air swimming pools that have restricted access to kiddies. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Location: | Roost | | Time: | 12:00 pm | | Current Mood: | accomplished |
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| Got a place at Oxford to do my PGCE starting this autumn. Bristol was obviously my first choice but they rejected me cos the course was full.....sniff! Am not too upset.....went punting with ma and Skink a couple of weeks ago and can confirm that Oxford has an enormous goose population. There are millions. Down the short stretch of the Cherwell we had to dodge our way through about 5 million alone. All the goosey couples had large, awkward looking teen goslings. One pair had 12 goslings following in a line behind em! They all popped out from the bushes along the river, one by one, plopping into the water! They were mainly canada honking geese, but there were a few greylags knocking about and even a clutch of mixed race goslings with one canada honking parent and one greylag. I also know for a fact that the goose population at Port Meadow is equally abundant. Honk!Hopefully some of you will come and visit and I can take you on a goose tour.
The most disturbing thing is that I might be forced to wear my graduation gown at some point which would cause trauma. It is cerise and magenta for gods sake! I will stick out like a sore thumb. Got to choose a college to belong to which is rather confusing. Then I have to deal with school children which is also a bit scary. Hmmmmn. I was born in Oxford and spent my first 3 years living in one of the roughest estates in the city thus think I should go back there to train! Trace my roots and all that!
Honk honk. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Have found a site to rival Mousecam 2002! You must go to the meowmix house immediately! I am rooting (sorry Australian readers for perverse language) for Molly as she seems nicest.
Also worth a look is the supergoose site where you can follow the migration of a nice bunch of Brent geese as they go a-honking. Honk honk honk.
The gannet in alnwick reckons they have launched Coke Zero in his remote settlement for trial so expect it in a store near you soon! The gannet is happy. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Anyone know any good, cheap sites that develop digi photis? Found snapfish which charges 10p per regular print. Wanna print about 250 pictures so need cheap!
Cheers | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | BB live | | Current Location: | The Shire | | Subject: | Doom and Despair | | Time: | 02:06 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/devious.gif) Devilish |
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| To celebrate 6/6/6 day I made my fortnightly pilgrimage to the dole office in High Wycombe. Not a pleasant journey. Buckinghamshire sadly has a widely divided population due to many eons of Tory rulership and the upper half all own mansions and yachts on the Thames whereas the lower half all frequent the dole office, pregnant and adorned with fake gold jewellery and tracksuits. I don't fit into the Buckinghamshire equation as I'm meant to be in Bristol or Thailand or somewhere less Buckinghamshirey. Even had to dodge the cars with blacked out windows, excessive spoilers and England flags whilst returning to the okapi-mobile. Joy. And what was a 2 week delay in payment 2 weeks ago is now apparently a 6 - 8 week delay which won't please Mr Natwest who wants money now! Oh yeah....anyone know what'll happen to the tax I'm owed? Will it appear with my dole? Or do I file a tax return for it? Gonna put more effort into finding some gainful employment I reckon to avoid the pilgrimage in 2 weeks time.
Watched good prog about the curse of the Omen. Slightly disturbing as a good family friend was in it. She played the arm at the booth at Windsor Safari Park. The baboons already went crazy and some guy got eaten by tigers so hopefully the windsor safari park bad luck has played itself out.
Btw happy birthday lemurgirl! Hope your cake doesn't get eaten by greedy roos or goats. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| My livejournal account now comes courtesy of Aardvarks Advertisements Ltd. Please ignore all attrocities they put up. Please inform me of anything particularly amusing you spot!
Skink still in hospital. Was very grumpy yesterday so Father and I got banned from visiting today. They might release hiim to the hounds soon, god help us.
Have found 1 positive factor for being back in this god-awful heap of a country. Bigbrother is back! They've got someone with tourettes on it this year and at least a couple whom seem incredibly mentally unstable so lets hope they have supplied the house with BIG knives. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Skink is improving a bit. He is off ventilation and awake, eating and drinking and chatting coherently (yesterday he was in cloud cuckoo land.....he was hallucinating telescopes). Kidneys not back in action yet and poor skink is so tired and weak. To make it even worse they have filled his ward up with smelly geriatrics which is most unfair. His heart is actually doing better than before the op. Can't be too optimistic....shite could be just round the corner.
Had lots of lovely emails from travelling friends. Kind words. Guess they can relate to being far from home.....tis a worse case scenario to backpackers!
Remebered that I can file for a tax rebate! Am owed nearly £700 I think! Now how much is a return flight to Thailand?! | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Subject: | Home | | Time: | 06:14 pm |
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| Back in the Uk.
No loud frogs. No geckoes on the wall and no song birds in beautiful wooden cages.
Poor Skinky is very ill. Please cross your fingers and toes for him. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | roostering | | Current Location: | jungle | | Subject: | In jungle | | Time: | 10:29 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/hot.gif) hot |
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| Am in the jungle. There is an internet cafe. And I get good mobile reception. Jungles just aren't what they used to be! village is cute tho....plenty of chooks wandering around and loud roostering at 5am after the mosque has woken em up (am in a hostel nextdoor to said mosque). Went on a 550m long canopy walk yesterday. Not a big fan of height so wasn't overly impressed! Went on a hike up a big hill after that in 38 degree heat and 100% humidity. Nearly drowned in my sweat! Heard some gibbons in the distance. Malay jungle creatures (even the geese) are rather recluse.
Went on a night safari last night! Saw a slow loris! Loris honks! Also saw a snake, some wild pigs, a tree frog and a couple of sleeping birds and 2 house cats. The animal spotter kept whittering on about seeing leopard cats in the distance but I don't believe him!
Am off to learn how to use the blowpipe this arbo so look out when I return home!
1 more night in the jungle then I head for the Perhentian Islands for some fresh sea air and maybe some snorkelling.
tarah! | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
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